


Healing

by SaraJaye



Category: Voltron: Defender of the Universe (1984)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hugs, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mutual Healing, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 05:57:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17616797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: Most would call her an angel as she soothes his battered soul, but he knows very well she's as broken as he is underneath her gentle facade.





	Healing

**Author's Note:**

> 026\. balm

He still has the nightmares. Even knowing he's safer on Pollux than he's been since they were all captured by Zarkon, his memories of Planet Doom are as vivid as if they happened yesterday. The whip crashing against his back at the slightest provocation, the beatings, the verbal abuse, the constant threat of being killed where he stood if he stepped out of line.

Even his escape into the cave was of little comfort. Alone, terrified, relying on moss to soothe his injuries. Eating mushrooms while his mind taunted him with images of his past self. The clean-cut, confident pilot of the Blue Lion was no more, his hair grown and ragged and his confidence in himself whittled to nothing. He imagined Keith, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Princess Allura, all of them turning away in disgust at the failure, the monster he'd become.

Seeing them again and hearing Keith say he was always one of them had helped, but it didn't stop the nightmares.

He doesn't know how he'd get through the nights without Romelle. He hates seeing her awakened by his screams, but she's by his side in an instant, holding him close, whispering reassurances.

He hesitates to call her an angel, because he knows she's only as human (so to speak) as he is. She's fought, too, for the sake of her younger brother. Taken lives for the sake of her planet and its innocents. She, too, knows the pain of torment and captivity; when she speaks of Prince Lotor, her eyes cloud over, and she folds in on herself a bit.

He didn't take her, she'd said, she'd always pushed him away before his groping and leering could turn to worse, and he'd cast her into the Pit of Skulls once she'd flat-out refused to marry him. But being touched in such a way by a man who saw her as a toy, a piece of meat, haunts her just the same. She stiffens sometimes when he embraces her or holds her hand.

But when she's holding him in her arms, she seems perfectly comfortable. Her every touch is a balm to his battered soul, returning his breathing to normal as the tears finally stop.

"Better now?" she asks as he lifts his gaze. Her fingers brush away any lingering tears, and he offers a weak smile.

"I'm fine now," he murmurs. As fine as he'll be for the moment, anyway. "I am sorry, Romelle, you're losing night after night of sleep over-"

"I don't mind." She tightens her arms around him, resting her cheek against his head. "Sometimes I have my own trouble sleeping anyway." _Of course._ He thinks of her calm and serene face as she addresses her people, her even voice, her efforts to carry herself with perfect poise and dignity no matter how she's feeling. A princess needs to reassure her subjects, and she has Prince Bandor to set a good example for, too.

Her burdens are as heavy as his own, perhaps even heavier, and he realizes that perhaps this is her way of seeking comfort without asking for it. She focuses so much on taking care of him, even when her soul needs healing just as badly.

He draws back from her just slightly, reaching up to stroke her face.

"If ever you need to break down, my princess, you can come to me." Romelle's eyes mist over, and she leans her cheek into his palm.

"Oh, Sven..."

She's no angel, and neither is he, but they're exactly what the other needs. Healing takes time, but it's easier when you're not alone. He may never be fully rid of the nightmares, and she may never forget Prince Lotor's cruelty. But they can move past everything together.

They embrace again, this time her head resting against his shoulder, and he closes his eyes.


End file.
